Fall and Rise
by Seregunda
Summary: "Who are they?" "Some team of gennin from Suna." "You mean-" "No not THAT team." "...There are others?" This is the story of the other team, the 'B' team. The team that Suna, and the rest of the world by extension, forgot. This is the story of the rise of the first two friends Gaara made by himself. This is the team of Korobi and Yaoki, cowards extraordinaire. Non-romance fic!


Seregunda: I'm finally back after such a long break of having anything to do with the site! This is just a tester, if people like it please let me know.

I am writing this because I feel, as the first friends Gaara made on his own, that Korobi and Yaoki need a story. And a background.

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing!

The heat permeating the classrooom was even more oppressive than usual. The children, born and raised in Sunagakure, were loosening buttons on their vests and fanning themselves with yesterday's exam papers. Those who had received the best marks were inconspicuously making sure that their results faced outwards towards their classmates.

Trying desperately to ignore the feeling of sweaty skin sticking to cotton, the chuunin instructor positioned himself in front of the class he had taught for the past four years. Twenty one excited faces were wathcing him eagerly for movement, the twenty second merely staring at him and likely planning his imminent death. Not all of his sweat was due to the heat.

"Ne, ne, Saki-sensei hurry up! We want to know who is on our teams!" A giddy boy wearing a dog-eared turban of bandages fastened to his head by his hitai-ate was nearly bouncing in his seat. Eager grins were exchanged between the students. It was no wonder they were excited. For the first time in their short lives they would be removed from the presence of the child called Gaara. It was no secret that he was to be placed on a team consisting only of himself, his siblings and Suna's most outstanding jounin, Baki.

"Calm down Korobi. You're going to be a ninja, that requires a lot more patience than waiting a few minutes for your teacher to call out a list." Saki sighed, knowing that the young puppet weilder was taking little notice of him. His handsome features were lit up in excitement, cheeks flushed and dark eyes sparkling. This boy was a higher graduate of the Academy this year, and there was little doubt in Saki's mind that he and his team would procede on to be genin.

Unlikely to be power-houses like the Yondaime Kazekage's children, but they would have their place.

"I will now begin to call out each of your names, your team, and the name of your jounin sensei. As graduates of the Academy, I expect the very best out of each and every one of you." Saki shifted slightly to better scan the faces of the graduates, eyes flicking more quickly past a pair of dead sea-foam orbs than the others.

"Team One, Gaara, Kankuro and Temari. Your sensei is Baki." Saki called out, licking his lips nervously and watching as a swirl of sand enveloped the red-haired child and whisked him away. Presumably to where the team was already waiting.

The classroom let out a collective breath, and Saki caught himself thanking whatever higher power that was willing to listen that Gaara rarely came to class during his years at the Academy.

"Team Two-" Saki continued, painfully aware of the jovial lilt his tone had acquired upon the permanent loss of the city's most terrifying shinobi. If anyonone had asked a few years ago if he would ever be terrified of a twelve year old, the answer would have been a negative.

"Team Six, Korobi, Yaoki and Nana. Your sensei is Taro." The entire class burst into peals of laughter, the three students in question looking none-too-amused.

"Sensei... Aren't these teams supposed to be built with keeping the members alive in mind, not just for your entertainment?" Yaoki didn't raise his hand. This, coming from someone who held manners in as high a regard as he did, proved just how irritated he was. The boy tugged the bangs on his left irritably.

"Coincidence." Saki waved the boy off, fully intent on calling out the last few teams.

"Right. Because 'Nana Korobi Ya Oki' just screams subtlety. We'll die." Nana commented dryly, the ancient idiom not sitting well with her. 'Fall seven times, get up eight'? How many shinobi got to the seventh fall without dying?

"It will be a great conversation starter, no more complaints." Saki answered brusquely, not leaving any room for the three to speak before calling out the remainder of the teams and ignoring the snickers still passing through the room. Injecting a bit of humour into the ranks of Suna couldn't do any harm.

Korobi glanced at both of his team mates surreptitiously around the flaps of his turban, taking in their reactions. He didn't care about the name thing, he thought it was funny. Yaoki didn't seem too amused though, his aristocratic features pinched and forlorn. Nana... had always been a bit difficult to read to be honest. Her sense of humour was rather caustic though, so it wouldn't bother her for long.

Korobi, despite everything, could see where Saki was coming from regarding the team. Both himself and Yaoki were puppeteers, typical Suna shinobi. Long-range specialists. That was where the similarities ended, as Yaoki's puppets seemed to be more reliant on poisons where Korobi's were built to be physically superior human weapons.

At least that was what Korobi understood of the boy's techniques, and that was through observation of the puppet while strapped to his back or leaning against a wall. He had yet to see the mechanism in combat, as poisoning classmates was a _really _bad idea with Saki as a sensei. Expulsion was the last thing to be worried about.

Nana would make up for their short-distance weaknesses with her taijutsu. She had been the best close-range fighter in the Academy, not that it was a difficult task considering how few Suna shinobi specialised in close-range combat. Nobody except Nana seemed to want to run around under the desert sun.

"Hey Korobi, what do you think? Don't get me wrong, I like you all well enough... But I don't want to be the laughing stock of the village!" Yaoki grumbled as soon as Saki had finished calling out the teams and began shuffling the papers on his desk, riffling through them as if looking for something.

"Our team is actually pretty balanced... We could request for one of us to swap with another puppeteer if it bothers you that much. Nana has to stay here, we need a taijutsu specialist." Korobi mused, waving the girl in question over to their conversation as each of the students started moving around the classroom.

"I'll never get old man humour." Nana stated loudly, but the corners of her mouth that were twitching proved otherwise. Saki, who had heard her insult, glared at the child briefly over the desk before resuming his organisation of the students' papers.

Nana sat down heavily next to Yaoki, stretching both arms over her head languorously and allowing them to fall idly to her sides. Korobi followed the movement with a hint of interest before turning his attention to his well-bred team mate who still seemed hung-up on the name issue.

"If worst somes to worst, you can always change your name." Korobi joked easily, earning an elbow in the side and a semi-serious glare from the affronted student.

"Let's grab some lunch before out sensei comes to pick us up, we've got over an hour." Yaoki sighed, taking note of the other students leaving the room with their respective team mates. They were milling out through the door, chatting amicably and eager to get out of the muggy classroom.

Saki watched Team Six leave with moderate interest, rolling his eyes as Korobi stuck out a foot to trip Nana, who sidestepped it easily, and ended up tripping his fellow puppeteer instead.

"So that's who you're dumping on me? I suppose I should be thankful that I'm not Baki, he got landed with the team from hell." A deep, grating voice chuckled from directly behind the school teacher. Saki spun in his chair, kunai in hand and genjutsu ready, but halted mid-motion when he saw who his visitor was.

"Impressive for an Academy teacher, but I suppose you have to be with Shukaku-boy in your class." A young man in his twenties with mismatched eyes and a mane of shaggy red hair that flowed down his back was leaning casually against the soft plaster wall. One eye was blue, the other brown. Rather than the result of an impressive hereditary jutsu however, it was a simple case of Heterochromia Iridum.

"Toru. I must say I was surprised to see your name on the list of volunteer jounin sensei." Saki spoke carefully, not sure what to make of the odd man. He had heard numerous rumours circulating the village about him, mostly involving the unusual weapon choice the jounin had made.

A large zhua was strapped to the man's back at all times. The zhua's conspicuous iron "hand" at the end had sharp claw-like nails that would impale flesh, and then tear it off from the body. The sheer weight of the zhua was enough to kill the opponent, but the claws made it even deadlier. When wielded by a professional, it could be used to pull mounted soldiers off their horse. But the main use of the zhua was to pull off the shields of enemies, leaving them exposed to the clawed hand of iron.

And the man in question was no doubt a professional.

"Not as surprised as I was when the Kazakage told me to, I bet." Toru laughed jovially, his large stature intimidating the teacher more than he would like to admit. The wicked appearance of the scars visible through his open jounin vest, one chasing the next down his broad chest, still caused Saki to wince internally at the thought of the pain endured to create even one of them.

"That... explains something I had been wondering about." Saki admitted with a terse nod, knowing this man would appreciate honest opinions more than the average shinobi would.

"Hahaha, I like you sensei! Now, what can you tell me about the gremlins? Are they a waste of space, or worth my time?" Toru asked with a booming laugh, waving his hand dismissively as th teacher began to sputter about how 'all students are precious'.

"You know they're not as well as I do. Toerags will always be toerags, and if a kid can't so much as catch a ball by the time they're ten they will never be a decent ninja." Toru scoffed, causing the teacher to narrow his eyes at the offending man who dismissed the students so easily.

"Taijutsu and ninjutsu are _not _the be all and end all of being a shinobi. That child that 'can't catch a ball' may end up being the world's next genjutsu master!" Saki snapped, standing up in an attempt to stare the other man down. Considering the obvious height difference between the two, and how badly Saki had to crane his neck to look into Toru's face, he doubted it had much of an effect on the jounin.

"Like a said, never be a decent ninja. Sneak attacks are one thing, refusing to fight head to head at all is just pathetic." Toru grunted, raising an eyebrow at the instructor who was struggling to keep a hold on his temper.

"I believe that you will get along very well with Korobi and Nana. Yaoki will require a lot of... concessions on your part." Saki breathed slowly, trying to be as diplomatic as possible. The zhua was not the only reason for the man's fame, equal to that was how difficult it was to get along with the disagreeable giant.

"Wait... Nana Korobi Ya Oki? Are you... are you _serious_? Those are their _names_? Give them to someone else! Hitomi can take a joke, she uses genjutsu, give them to her!" Toru panicked, worried beyond reason that a team with a name like that would ever be associated with him.

Toru had worked his ass off for years to get where he was. The only shinobi in Suna stronger than himself were Baki and the Yondaime. And of the three he was the most feared, the most bloodthirsty.

He had heard a woman in a supermarket just yesterday use his name in place of a boogeyman's to prevent her child's oncoming tantrum! Not even this... this opportunistic, pansy-ass, equality-loving (where there was no form of equality at all) school teacher would expect him to work with 'Team Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight'.

Toru refused to fall even the once required to get up again. He took pride in it.

"Hm, I expect you to be fully supportive of Yaoki's form of battle. He's a poison specialist. He has also shown a vivd interest in genjutsu and is the brightest mind to come out of the Academy in a decade. Have fun." Toru blanched. That was _definitely_ a smug sneer on that teacher's face.

"Fuck you." If all else fails, fall back on the multitude's variety of insults.

Despite himself, Saki allowed a grin to form on his face as the jounin used a _shunshin_ to leave the classroom. The zhua wielder had been angered, an obvious negative and one he had been hoping to avoid, but the justification he had felt had been _oh so worth it_.

* * *

Toru glared viciously at the three Academy graduates sitting before him, using his mismatched eyes to great effect. The three of them were unnerving to look at without a glare, an effect that could be used to their advantage later on.

To Toru's chagrin, each of the three graduates were almost freakishly good looking. For children that is. There wasn't a flaw on their skin, unless Korobi's lop-sided grin counted but it made him a bit more charming if he was to be honest.

Yaoki, his perfectly chiselled features and pale skin already a prominent characteristic of his moderately well-known family, had been expected. Yaoki's cousin, Sasori, who had defected the village years ago had incredibly similar features if very different colouring. His grandmother Chiyo had apparently been a looker in her day as well. Rather than the signature red hair of the family, Yaoki's was a deep brown that looked almost purple.

Korobi was a more awkward type to pinpoint. He didn't have the aristocratic features that Yaoki did, his complexion was quite tanned and he usually seemed to have a broad smile on his face. The turban he wore seemed only to accentuate the relaxed charm that hung about him, his high cheekbones framed by the white flaps.

Nana... Like her team mates, Toru found it difficult to fault her physically. Her face, small with large saucer-like blue eyes, straight nose, small cupid-bow lips and perfectly arched eyebrows, was dainty and elf-like. The only seemingly human factor was her considerable height, which was more than Toru expected when he had called them to stand up and follow him from the classroom. She stood a full head over each of the other students. Nana was currently fiddling with her waist-length blue hair, removing the pencil shavings Korobi had slipped into the locks.

"Alright midgets, almost-midget, tell me something about yourselves. Anything, I don't really care." Toru had already figured out the reason this team had been put together, he only had to look at the three children to figure out what the village had in mind. With their combined charm and appearances he doubted with a little bit of training that there would be anywhere this team couldn't infiltrate.

"I'm Korobi. I use puppets to fight using the direct stlye, but I want to be strong. Really, really strong. The only reason I started using puppets was because if I didn't I would have had to go near Gaara's shield when we were sparring in class." Korobi admitted, gazing at their new sensei in awe and admiration. He knew who Toru was, and had the utmost respect for the man.

Toru listened to the brat, mildly impressed with what he had heard. Wanted to act like a real ninja, but couldn't because he would probably have died. Respectable reason, worth his time.

"My name is Yaoki. I am also a puppeteer, however this would have been my choice either way. I want to make other nations respectful of the art of puppetry, and gain the respect of my village." Yaoki bowed slightly, more of an inclination of the head, which made Toru feel uncomfortable.

Doesn't want to act like a ninja, but has an overbearing presence and a... vaguely respectable goal. Not a complete waste of time.

"My name is Nana. I fight using a mixture of taijutsu and ninjutsu... Just taijutsu really. I owe a few people some different things, so paying them back is probably my priority." Nana finished, trailing off weakly and knowing that her goals sounded insignificant compared to her companions'.

Respectable interests... But damn if she wasn't giving decent information that he could use later.

"And I'm Toru, your new sensei and God. When I say jump, I expect you to already be two feet in the air. When I tell you to train, I don't expect any bitching about how hard it is. And when I tell you that you haven't become true gennin yet, I expect you to man up and deal with it." Toru finished what he believed was an impressive intimidating speech.

The girly-boy who was supposedly a true puppeteer seemed genuinely wary of him now.

"So... His name's Toru and he's a sadist?" Nana smirked, ignoring the indignant huff of their new sensei and the offended punch received from Korobi in the upper arm.

"Don't you know who he is?!" Korobi hissed between gritted teeth, and Toru settled back smugly to allow his little fan to defend his honour. His skill deserved this much adoration at _least_ in his opinion.

"Should I?" The question was asked blandly enough for Toru to know that the girl likely wouldn't care if he was Emperor of the Universe or the guy who delivered her milk, so he waved the fuming Korobi down. The boy obeyed, but kept shooting death glares at the too-relaxed form of the tall girl next to him.

"Excuse me, but may I ask what you mean when you say we are not true gennin yet?" Yaoki spoke in quiet, clipped and polite tones. His eyes were sharp, not leaving the form of the zhua-weilder.

"So you _are_ the one with the brain." Toru cocked an eyebrow at the boy who was steeling himself under his mismatched gaze. His eyes, so different in colour from one another, were very disconcerting.

Yaoki didn't respond to the claim, deciding to do so would only irritate his fellow team mates. Apparently, miscommunication was something they wouldn't be able to afford just yet.

"That's right. The Academy exam only weeds out the ones that are completely useless, the exam the jounin sensei will give determines whether or not you are ready to get going or not." The tall man brushed a tuft of red-orange hair out of his face as he took in the kids' expressions.

Yaoki: Looked almost constipated. Over-thinking everything and most likely trying to plan for something he had no information on yet.

Korobi: Seemed to be freaking out. Rivulets of sweat could be seen beading on his forehead as he trained his eyes on his idol, hoping for just a hint of good news.

Nana: Was frowning. It looked as if she was chewing her lip but he couldn't be sure. Maybe she just had a facial tick.

"W-when will we be taking this test?" Korobi asked bravely, hoping to have some time to prepare himself.

"In ten minutes. Meet me in training ground twenty three." Toru allowed a sadistic grin to creep onto his face as the three children paled. He allowed them to watch him set a stopwatch he had kept with him for this very occasion before glancing up from the device and looking into each individual's eyes directly.

"Don't keep me waiting now~" Toru teased before using a _shunshin_ to escape from the area outside the Academy they had been using for their impromptu meeting. Korobi's wail of despair followed him, causing his to snicker.

It would be a twenty minute run for a gennin to get from the Academy to that particular training ground. While not a part of the test, it would be a good indicator of what speed he had to work with.

Within minutes, Toru's speed had landed him in the middle of the intended training ground. The area was dusty, bare, with a few sparse cacti jutting up out of the cracked earth in defiance against nature that tried as hard as it could to make the area uninhabitable.

Three large boulders, one the size of two fully grown men and the other two much larger than that, stood proudly as Toru glanced up at them fondly.

He had been trained here, along with Baki and a young chuunin, by the Kazekage himself. They had been chosen among the ranks, despite their varying ages, for a month long training course. Toru had been only a gennin at the time, the same age as the kids scrambling to make their way to the training ground right now. It was the biggest honour that had ever been bestowed on him, and remained so to this day.

"I'm here!" A feminine voice wheezed, and Toru glanced up, startled to hear an arrival so soon.

Nana stood there, at the very edge of the border, with her hands on her knees and hair fluttering as she took in deep gasps of breath.

"Twelve minutes and fifty eight seconds. You're late." Toru narrowed his eyes as she nodded in acceptance. It was then that he took notice of her particularly long legs, much longer than those of her peers.

"Heh, no wonder." Toru grumbled, more to himself than to the girl who had now caught her breath and was looking at him strangely. He ignored her, doing her the same disservice she had, unkowingly or not, given him upon her treatment of his achievements.

Korobi impressed him by arriving eighteen minutes and fifteen seconds after the stopwatch began, Yaoki only twenty seconds after that.

"I am going to fight each of you, one on one. Not anywhere near my full strength, of course. You lot are nowere near jounin level yet. I'll hit you with upper gennin level strength only." This statement was met with a mixed range of approval.

Korobi was, of course, delighted at the prospect of sparring against his hero. The kid seemed to want to do nothing more than impress him, and Toru shook himself abruptly upon realising he had thought of the boy as sweet.

Yaoki merely looked worried. He was definitely the clever one, and if he stayed as quiet as he had so far, Toru would have a whole new appreciation for shinobi that fought with their mental capacity as much as their physical.

Nana was surveying the bleak landscape at her leisure, seemingly aware that Toru was waiting for her reaction. She remained silent, so Toru shrugged and continued speaking.

"In real life, fights are nothing like the movies. I know you've been desensitized and all that shit in the Academy, I'm not talking about blood and gore here. You haven't been prepared for how fast a fight really is." Toru noted smugly that he had each of their attention now, eager eyes burning with desire to learn from the legend of the village.

"Fights that last for hours on end do not exist. Not one on one. One wrong punch, you go down and all it takes is a kunai and you're dead. What your demonstrations have shown is how many punches can be fit into a fight in a minute. In a life and death match, your fight will rarely last longer than five minutes." Toru stood up, and with his zhua carved a large circle into the cracked and dusty earth.

"This circle has a diameter of fifteen meters, so fifteen meters is the furthest you will be allowed to get from me during our... spar. All three of you have to pass, otherwise the team is worthless. You, Princess, up." Toru nudged Yaoki towards the circle, whose knees looked to be almost knocking together.

Both Nana and Toru watched pityingly as the nervous gennin unstrapped the large puppet from his back and held it steadily against his side in its long black case.

The jounin moved, damned fast. So fast that the spectators nearly missed seeing it. Yaoki's body seemed to react on its own, without conscious thought. He slid to his right, opposite to the direction he had been circling as the man rushed him. Yaoki's vision blurred as the battle resumed.

The man threw a block with his left hand, tried to hook Yaoki's left leg with his own, trying to throw him to the ground. Yaoki turned forward and to his right, slapping his left hand against the middle of his opponent's back as he slid past. The blow caught his opponent between his shoulder blades. Max felt the wire mesh beneath the man's uniform flex inwards.

This movement gave the gennin enough time to spring back and fling the forgotten case open in time for the puppet inside to intercept the jounin's next attempt.

It was an awkward creation with four arms, ragged hair and a mouth full of kunai blades and featureless besides. Two pinpricks of holes were in the palms of its 'hands', likely a senbon holder.

Nana and Korobi watched as their 'sensei' quickly lost interest in the fight as soon as it became apparent the puppet was his new opponent. In mere seconds, Toru was standing behind Yaoki with a kunai at his throat.

"Not bad at all kiddo, especially for someone without a specialty in taijutsu." Toru commented appreciatively as the now-grumpy child stomped his way over to where his team mates sat. Evidently he had realised just how easily Toru had been taking him up until that point.

"Turban, now." Toru commanded, and Korobi scrambled eagerly to his feet and practically skipped into the ring. Toru felt a twist of guilt in his gut but quickly shoved it down.

He began the match and immediately Korobi tossed a handful of tiny wooden things into the air. Toru craned his neck to get a good look at them, frowning as he thought he lost sight of them.

He saw them then. Silent as beetles, tiny wooden spiders scuttled toward him.

More followed, slipping from crevices in the cracked earth. Under cover of the dusty terrain, the pack had stalked in, unseen, converging from three directions. Toru would be seriously impressed if he wasn't creeped out by them.

The impressed feeling wore off a little when he realised they couldn't actually do anything other than provide a distraction to give Korobi time to wrestle his incredibly humanoid puppet out of it's case.

"Seriously, I know you're a gennin but at least give them _something_ dangerous." Toru crunched a wooden spider under his boot as if to prove a point. Korobi winced as the little puppet disappeared under the sole, and the chakra string lay uselessly next to its broke body.

The rest of the fight went much the same as Yaoki's had as soon as the puppet made an appearance. As soon as it wasn't flesh that Toru's fists made a connection with, boredom seeped in and he ended the fight in much the same way he had the last. Kunai to the throat.

"Very innovative. Those little guys will be vicious if you get some poison or knives or something in them." Toru admitted, mostly to cheer up the now-depressed little gennin.

Because that is what the two boys were. They were far from the highest tier of gennin level strength, but they certainly had enough to go on D rank missions, C with a bit of work.

"You'll want to really impress me if taijutsu's your specialty Doll, I don't approve of anything less than the best with this stuff." Toru warned the young girl as she stepped meticulously, daintily almost, into the ring.

Nana faced her opponent and waited. She would let Toru make the first move.

_Don't lose don't lose don't lose_.

Toru moved.

Nana jerked back, aside. The blow meant for her jaw whizzed by in a blur of knuckles. From the corner of her eye, she saw her opponent's other arm begin an upward trajectory. She ducked this time, and felt her hair ruffle with the force of it.

Drop to the floor. Roll clear, stand. Don't let him connect. Draw it out.

Toru charged like a bull. Nana sidestepped, whirled to face him. Toru lunged. She avoided one flying fist, only to collide with another.

The blow glanced off her ribcage, a sharp sting fading fast. In front of her, Toru grinned and jabbed again at her midsection.

Block. Shove away. Back off.

Avoidance was simple, but it couldn't last forever. Minutes passed with no contact, and Nana felt pressure emanating from all sides, a nearly audible chant: _punch-kick-strike-hurt_.

Nana went on the offensive. She lashed out, aiming for her opponent's gut. Toru proved equally effective at defense, and Nana's fist met a meaty forearm. She tried again with both hands—one-two, Suna's technique—and this time connected.

Felt like punching flesh-covered steel.

Too fast to see, and almost certainly a reflex from the older man judging from the bemused look on his face afterwards, a foot connected with her temple and Nana fell, no crumpled, to the floor.

"That's very good for your age, nothing compared to me of course but... Hey, are you awake?" Toru halted his monologue, leaning over the girl to look at her face as the two puppeteers scurried quickly towards their fallen team mate.

Unconscious. Shit.

"She'll be alright tomorrow. It was only a love tap, didn't even use my zhua. You all pass by the way" Toru said proudly, feeling the disbelieving stares of the two male students as he waved their worries aside quickly. He might have misjudged the strength in his kick, but he sure as hell didn't put in enough force to kill her! Hopefully...

"Um... Thank you. I'll take her home Toru-sensei." Yaoki looked eager to get her away from him. He'd probably just take the girl to th hospital anyway, the stinking goody-two-shoes.

"No, that's fine Princess. You go home now, tell that old bat Chiyo that I passed you while you're at it. She might actually be a little nice to me now." Toru hoisted the unconscious girl over his shoulder with a domineering grin, daring the two students to even try remove her from his custody.

Two apologetic glances were sent the hopefully-not-a-corpse's way before the two boys dashed off with energy they should have shown in the sparring match earlier.

'_So we've got the muscle in this chick, the brains in Princess and the surprise in Turban. Least it's a well-rounded bunch.'_ Toru mused as he watched the gennin run away from him with a speed he was _positive_ they hadn't displayed before.

He was already such a good sensei, his very presence encourages improvement!


End file.
